Satisfaction Factor
Satisfaction Factor
#97 - Intuitive Eating Hot Tips & Hot Takes
If you've ever felt like the intuitive eating framework just doesn't resonate with you as it's presented in the books, then this episode is for you! This week, we're offering some different perspectives and ways to practice each principle that you might not find in the book, and that we’ve found through years of practicing on our own and working with clients. These hot tips and hot takes might be just what you need if you've been feeling stuck or like something's missing from your practice.
We're talking about:
- Why it's so important to keep coming back to work on rejecting the diet mentality & unpacking our fears about fatness alongside each of the other principles
- How to make honoring our hunger feel less like a pass/fail test
- What we should really be focusing on when we're working on feeling fullness
- Why emotional eating might actually be helping us
- The importance of doing this work on both a personal level and an interpersonal level
- And one way that many of us accidentally turn the intuitive eating framework into another set of food & exercise rules
And if you want to get some support in this work, Naomi has a few options for you! She has 3 spots open for 1:1 Intuitive Eating & Anti-Diet coaching! She also offers individual pay-what-you-can coaching calls called Mindset Reset calls. And lastly, she's currently trying to gauge interest for a fall cohort of her group coaching program, Nourish & Bloom, so be sure to join the waitlist for that if you're at all interested.
Stay in touch with the pod on IG @satisfactionfactorpod!
And here's where you can continue to find us:
Sadie Simpson: www.sadiesimpson.com or IG @sadiemsimpson
Naomi Katz: www.happyshapes.co or IG @happyshapesnaomi
Welcome to Satisfaction Factor, the podcast where we explore how ditching diet culture makes our whole lives more satisfying. Welcome back to Satisfaction Factor. I'm Naomi Katz, an intuitive eating and body image coach.
Speaker 2:I'm Sadie Simpson, a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. Before we dig into this week's episode, just a reminder that if you'd like to support the show, we have merch. We have a handful of designs on TeePublic that can be printed as stickers, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, tote bags and whatever else you like. T-shirts and sweatshirts come into sizes up to 5X and you can check that out at the link in our show notes.
Speaker 1:Also a reminder that if you're looking for some support in your intuitive eating and anti-diet work, I've got availability for all of my coaching options. I have spots available for one-to-one intuitive eating and anti-diet coaching. I do that coaching in packages of six, nine or 12 months and I offer payment plans and other accessible pricing options. Those packages include weekly Zoom calls, voxer messaging, access between calls and copies of the intuitive eating workbook and the your Body Is Not An Apology workbook. You can get all the information about coaching and submit your application at happyshapesco slash coaching. And if a long-term one-to-one coaching relationship isn't for you, I've got a couple other options for you.
Speaker 1:I offer one-off pay-what-you-can coaching calls called Mindset Reset Calls. Those are individual hour-long calls to discuss specific sticking points without a long-term coaching commitment, and you can get information about that and sign up for a call at happyshapesco slash mindset reset. And then, lastly, I am currently trying to gauge interest for a fall cohort of my group coaching program Nourish and Bloom. That's a 40-week group program. Coaching program Nourish and Bloom that's a 40-week group program including weekly written content, monthly group calls, monthly journaling prompts and an online community space. You can get all the information about that at happyshapesco slash nourishandbloomwaitlist and if you're at all interested, I do recommend that you get on the waitlist, because that's how I'm going to know if there's enough interest to run a fall cohort of that program.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's the whole point of wait lists to gauge interest and to see what you got out there and who's interested.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So you can get all the information about all of those options on my website, happyshapesco, and those links will also be in our show notes. Okay, so this week we are going to work our way through the 10 intuitive eating principles and offer some hot takes and hot tips about each of them. I saw some of them don't feel like hot takes they more. They feel more like just like good tips for navigating the practices. So I'm kind of I've kind of gone back and forth between hot takes and hot tips. I mean, I like both. You can the practices. So I'm kind of I've kind of gone back and forth between hot takes and hot tips.
Speaker 2:I mean, I like both, you can have both. Right, yeah, hot takes and hot tips.
Speaker 1:It's a little bit of both, but basically it's just some different perspectives or ways to practice each of the principles that you might not find in the book and that we've realized through years of our own practices and of working with clients. We've talked before about how intuitive eating like as written might not fit everyone's needs, and I think some of the things we're going to talk about today might help if you're feeling like something's missing or if you're feeling a little stuck. We are not going to do a deep dive definition of each principle in this episode Like we'll do a little refresher as we talk about each one of them, but if you want to revisit the principles in depth, I definitely recommend checking out our intuitive eating deep dive series, which is episodes six through 14 of the podcast.
Speaker 2:Great reminder. Those are some good episodes and they really go into detail of all this stuff.
Speaker 1:They were. Those are some of my favorite episodes, and it's also like it's so nice to be able to just refer people to them because they're just like, they're just a good resource to have on hand when you need a refresher about what we're doing here. Yep, okay. So principle number one reject the diet mentality. So a little refresher. What it is.
Speaker 1:It's essentially the foundation for all the other principles. It is first and foremost about giving up on the practice of dieting, and that includes any practice with the goal of intentional weight loss or weight maintenance, because both of these things are forms of weight control and body control. So you know, this is the principle where we explore the science of why dieting doesn't work and how it causes harm, and then we also, in order to sort of bridge that gap between the intellectual and, like, the lived experience, we also look at how that science is reflected in our own personal dieting experiences. And then we do a lot of work also on like grieving the loss of our weight loss hopes and dreams, all the things that dieting and promised it would bring us, that like it actually never really did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that grieving the loss of weight loss, hopes and dreams, that's a hard one. I mean I know this is a topic that comes and goes on this podcast a lot, but like even just hearing you say weight loss, hopes and dreams, like it really weight loss hopes and dreams, like it really it is such a big part of our lives for so long to kind of give up on it, it just feels weird sometimes yeah, absolutely, and you know it's, it's hopes and dreams, but it's also like privilege and social capital and access, and like there's a lot to grieve here and like obviously you don't do it all in this one principle, but like it's, this is where we start uncovering that stuff and doing that work.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this? I would say that these are more hot tips than hot takes. I don't know, the second part might be more of a hot take, but the first one is that this principle cannot just be about weight loss and dieting. You know we've talked about this a million times before. But if we are not looking at the way diet culture upholds and is rooted in systems of anti-fatness, white supremacy, colonialism, ableism, healthism, the patriarchy, gender norms, capitalism, just all of the isms then we're just not really going to get very far with this work. The science and like the self-affirmations only take us so far. If we want to really rid ourselves of body shame, if we want to really reject the diet mentality, we have to do the really uncomfortable work of looking at the roots of the system, noticing how we've participated in it, noticing how we've internalized it. That's going to make it much deeper and much more sustainable for ourselves in the long term and it's also going to do the most in terms of societal impact and like true dismantling of these systems. So, like it can't just be about diets don't work like, it has to go deeper than that.
Speaker 1:And then the second thing and again I don't know if this is a hot tip.
Speaker 1:I think it's like a borderline hot take Whenever you're feeling stuck in one of the other principles, there's a really good chance that you need to come back here to this principle for a minute, because it is very likely that some aspect of diet culture or the diet mindset is what's tripping you up with whatever other principle you're working on Now. That doesn't mean you have to stop working on the other principle and start over, Because in practice, like the principle of rejecting the diet mentality is really part of every other principle as well. So this really just means that we have to take a minute to like actively incorporate this principle into whatever work we're doing and like consciously ask ourselves, like what is the diet culture narrative that's standing in my way? And when I say that, I'm using diet culture as a broad descriptor here, because maybe it's actually ableism, maybe it's actually healthism or gender norms or something like that. But once you identify it, then you're going to know what you need to work on alongside the other principle you're working on.
Speaker 2:I think that's a little bit of a hot take and a hot tip. I think it kind of toasts the line of both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a thing nobody tells you about practicing a two-minute meeting Yep.
Speaker 1:Okay. Principle number two is honor your hunger. And again, brief refresher definition. This principle, like at its most basic, is about learning to recognize and honor our hunger cues so that we can keep ourselves adequately fed. So this is the principle where we learn to listen to our bodies, which is not a like switch we flip. There's always a learning curve. We learn what hunger feels like and we practice eating when we're hungry.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I think this is a, this is a hot tip with a hot take like baked into it. The most important part of this principle is not figuring out exactly the right way to honor our hunger, it's overcoming the fear of hunger and the belief that hunger is a problem. So something I hear a lot is I'm not sure if I'm actually hungry, so I'm not sure if I should eat, and so here's the hot take part of it, especially in the beginning. If you think you might be hungry, but you're not sure, eat every single time, as long as that's accessible. If you, if you even think you might be hungry, eat, and I say especially in the beginning, but like maybe always yeah, yeah, it's like that thing.
Speaker 2:Like I mean, I know there's controversy here from a pelvic floor standpoint, but like if you're leaving the house and you even think you might need to go to the bathroom, go ahead and go, because you might not know where you can find a bathroom. Like it's kind of similar like bodily cues of like okay, there's a little inkling I might need to pee. Probably should do it because it might not get to go in the next three hours or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like that's definitely similar and like, as far as the food thing goes, there's like there's a lot of reasons why if you think you're hungry you should just eat. But like the main two are one, thinking about food as a hunger cue. So there's a really good chance that if you are thinking you're hungry, you are and you just haven't recognized that and acknowledged it and validated it as a hunger cue yet. The second is so what if you're not hungry and you eat anyway? So what if you're were wrong and you ate when you weren't hungry? Like there's obviously a diet culture narrative there that's worth spending some time unpacking and in the meantime, eat. And then the second hot tip is if you never think you're hungry, set timers and make sure you eat anyway. That's still intuitive eating. Some of us are never going to be able to rely purely on our hunger cues and most of us will at some point in our lives, go through periods when our hunger cues are unreliable because of stress, grief, because of heat, because of illness, because of altitude I've learned recently has like a pretty significant effect on like muting hunger cues, and that's just a few reasons. You still need food and if you're a temporary lack of hunger cue person versus a never can sense hunger cues person. Not only do you still need food, you still need as much food as you needed before the stressful period or whatever is going on. That's muting your hunger cues. And because you can't feel those hunger cues, even if you're setting timers like that's not your usual way of relating to food, like that's not your usual way of relating to food so you're probably going to end up eating less than you normally would during that period of time, which means you're going to be extra hungry for a little while. When you do get your hunger cues back and that is a good thing that needs to be honored just as much as any other hunger cue Like that's all cue, that's all normal, that's all your body doing what it's supposed to do, it's nuanced. But yeah, basically, when in doubt, eat, eat If you right, like that's, that's it Just when in doubt, eat, okay.
Speaker 1:Principle three is make peace with food. What it is is unconditional permission to eat, unconditional permission with food, where we do a lot of work around recognizing that diet culture has kind of brainwashed us into thinking that we need an outside source to keep us in line around food and that if we don't have that, then like health catastrophe, endless weight gain just you know all the fear mongering basically. So you know we do the work here around realizing that our food rules are what's driving our food rebellion, about learning to let go of those rules, and we do a lot of practicing eating our off-limits foods so that we can learn that we actually can be trusted with them. Kind of a side note in practice I usually do this as principle four instead of principle three with people, but it actually is principle three, okay. So again, I think this is these are mostly. These are like lukewarm takes but hot tips.
Speaker 1:So first, you actually are going to eat a lot when you first start giving yourself unconditional permission to eat and it is going to feel a lot when you first start giving yourself unconditional permission to eat and it is going to feel like it reaffirms all of your fears about needing rules for control.
Speaker 1:But what we really need during this principle is not more control, it's time and it's self compassion and it's a willingness to unpack our internalized anti-fatness.
Speaker 1:So you know, mostly again it's about remembering that rejecting the diet mentality has to be a part of every single principle. The other thing is that it's okay if you're afraid of weight gain at first. There is a really good chance that by the time you get to this principle, you might have already gained some weight just from no longer suppressing your appetite and ignoring your hunger cues, and that can make the idea of allowing yourself unconditional permission even more scary. And, yes, you might gain more weight while you practice this principle, which might make it hard to give this principle all the time it might actually take. But we're never going to actually be able to let go of all of our rules and restrictions if we don't work to let go of our fear of weight gain and like, okay, maybe this is the hot take part. To me, this work is actually what this principle is all about. It doesn't matter if you ever eat the ice cream, as long as you know that it would be okay if you did, no matter what your body looked like.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yep, and just kind of as a helpful tip alongside this, for a deep dive into unpacking the desire for weight loss, I would recommend checking out episode 55. What if I still want to lose weight? And episode 80. What if weight loss could actually help your situation?
Speaker 2:Yep, those are two of our most popular episodes, and that is for a good reason. They're really really good. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to them, or if it's been a while and you need a refresher, those are good ones to go back to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and honestly, like the fact that those are two of our most popular episodes should also tell you that this is such a normal thing to feel and a normal thing to have to navigate as you go through this process, so like you're not doing anything wrong by having those fears and struggling with those questions. Yeah, okay. Principle four is challenge the food police. So what it is is all about letting go of value judgments about food. So, again, this is the principle where we learn that, while some foods are more nutritionally dense than others, and some foods are more energy dense than others, neither of those things is inherently good or bad. And we do a lot of work around building awareness of how diet culture moralizes food, how we've internalized that thinking and how it's interfered with our autonomous decisions around food. Okay, so this one's purely a hot tip. It is like not even a slightly lukewarm take, but we have to address the external food police in this principle too, which means setting boundaries with people in our lives about food and diet talk. So, yes, this principle is about doing the internal work to let go of narratives and to find powerful reframes, but that only goes so far if we allow ourselves to be constantly saturated in other people's value and moral judgments about food and bodies. So doing this work helps build resilience to diet culture, but it's not an impenetrable force field. We still need to have safe people and safe spaces where we don't constantly have to be fighting off diet culture narratives and, since intuitive eating is really about recognizing and meeting our needs, learning to set boundaries that help us meet our need for safety and for peace is very much like in the wheelhouse of this principle Again, like not really a hot take at all, but definitely an important tip for navigating that principle.
Speaker 1:So our hot tip is that healthism can show up really, really strongly here, very much in the same way that it often shows up when we talk about unconditional permission to eat, because diet culture and healthism tell us that if we're eating for pleasure, then we're definitely all we're eating is like super energy dense food. You know, within diet culture, pleasure is supposed to be reserved for cheat days or special occasions and we have to earn it through deprivation, and so it can be scary to let go of that and just eat foods that give us pleasure. It's that whole, you see, in all kinds of things in pop culture about. Oh, it must be good for you because it tastes bad or something like that, right? Or if it's good for you, then it must taste bad, but like and here's the lukewarm take. It's not exactly a hot take, but it's not. It's not nothing. Food that tastes good is good for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good take Right Food that nourishes us physically, mentally, socially, culturally and emotionally is good for us, and the only reason we think otherwise is because of internalized anti-fatness. So again, we have to, like intentionally incorporate some of principle one here and explore that fear of weight gain and a lot of our beliefs about weight and health. And then the other thing in this principle is that, like a lot of times, we have to explore our relationship to pleasure more broadly, like not just related to food. Like, are we denying ourselves pleasure in other areas? Do we see ourselves as worthy of experiencing pleasure? Is our pleasure a priority or something that we see as secondary to meeting other people's needs or to meeting outside expectations? Like, just how does pleasure factor into our lives generally? And like, if we don't deserve or aren't worthy of experiencing pleasure, who is? These are like very big questions and often actually have to be a part of this principle.
Speaker 1:Okay, principle six is feel your fullness, which is all about getting in touch with our fullness cues and learning what it means to find, learning what it means to be comfortable and satisfied. So when we talk about fullness within intuitive eating, we're talking about a comfortable and satisfied fullness, satisfied fullness, and that can take a while to figure out for ourselves, because it's going to mean something different for everybody. Like there's no prescriptive answer of like how full is the right amount of fullness for each person. So that's primarily what this principle is about. Okay, so I think this one actually is a hot take, because I feel like I don't ever hear people talking about this. Feeling fullness is actually a key part of honoring our hunger. So this principle is not about making sure we don't eat too much. It's actually about making sure that we're eating enough every time we eat. Like we should be eating to fullness every time we eat, not to like 80% full, but to 100% full every time. That's how we know that we're actually honoring our hunger and not just managing it, not just like quieting it, but like actually honoring it. And like you know, nothing's black and white. So obviously there are exceptions. For instance, like you're going to cook dinner but you're super hungry and need a snack before it, like just to tide you over until dinner. Okay, maybe you don't eat to 100% fullness while you're cooking dinner, fine, like, but those are the exceptions. Like, 99% of the time, you should be eating to 100% fullness. That sounded like that anchorman quote 60% of the time. It works every time, but I stand by it, okay.
Speaker 1:Secondly and this is also a hot take we are never going to completely eliminate eating past fullness. In fact, I would say that if we never eat past fullness, we're probably restricting. Yeah, eating past fullness is just part of the human experience. Sometimes it's accidental, right Like we just we missed the mark because we were distracted or we just miscalculated and we ended up more full than we wanted to be. Sometimes it's intentional we're eating something we really enjoyed, we're eating something that we don't usually have access to, and we just make the choice to continue eating it, even after we know we're technically full. The important thing is that both of those scenarios are actually fine. The first is just, it's a learning experience, it's fine and the second is an exercise of autonomy, and both of those things are equally valuable in an intuitive eating framework like directly work with folks through the intuitive eating framework.
Speaker 2:However, I can very much remember, like when I was doing more of this, this, the fill your fullness one I feel like was always tricky and for different reasons, for different people, cause again like everything's nuanced and everybody is like individualized but like, I think, for a lot of the reasons that you talked about, like the whole, like eating to 100 full, like that's it. That's hard for people, which all of these are hard for people when you've been like immersed in this diet mentality forever. Oh for sure, but it's so like, it's so hard because it's. It's like how, how do you know when you're 100% full, whenever you have been spending so long trying to repress what hunger really even is? So this is a hard one, I feel like Absolutely and honestly.
Speaker 1:I feel like my take on that is very similar to my take on hunger, in that you're better off erring on the side of more food than less food, especially in the beginning. Yeah, like I'd rather you end up 105% full than 90% full. Yeah, like it's. It's just because and I there's so much like unpacking of narratives that has to go into that but like the thing is that if you only let yourself get to 90% full, you're never going to understand what fullness cues feel like. If you let yourself get to 105 or 110% full, you'll at least feel the cues and know that like you went past them a little, but if you never get to them, you never learn what they feel like.
Speaker 2:That is true.
Speaker 1:Also just to break the habit. Like you know, there's there's something to being very intentional about building new habits and letting go of old ones. So if previously the thing was always to avoid fullness or to not get all the way full, it's so important behaviorally to practice letting yourself feel full and just recognizing that like there's no, there's no perfection here, right, like there isn't actually a gauge on your stomach that's like oh, this was 100% full.
Speaker 1:And this was 102% full and you went 2% over it. Like it's trial and error and it is entirely based on your internal cues and it's going to be different from day to day and at different times of day, like all of these things. So, like you know, so much of this is just about realizing that like it doesn't fucking matter, which is really like you can't just say that because that sounds really dismissive and it's like it's not meant to be dismissive. It takes so much time and so much work to get to a place to realize that the minutia actually doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Okay, principle seven cope with your emotions with kindness. So what it is is noticing when we're using food as a coping mechanism. Notice, I did not say stopping using food as a coping mechanism. We are just noticing when we're using food as a coping mechanism, and I mean that both in terms of eating food and restricting food. So this is where we work on identifying our emotions and our needs and we work on building a larger toolbox of coping tools and skills for meeting our needs, so that food isn't our only option. Not a hot take, necessarily, but also maybe I don't know. I don't know what the category is.
Speaker 1:This is a hot take or a lukewarm take or a hot tip or what. This part's not controversial, at least within intuitive eating. Emotional eating is not a problem. It is information about something else that might feel like a problem. It is information about something else that might feel like a problem, but this is the part that I think is important. If we simply try to stop emotional eating, we are never going to address the actual problem. So what I mean by that is like to take it into another context, because a lot of times that's helpful for the framing of it.
Speaker 1:If you are having insomnia and you are exhausted, sure, you could try to fix the exhaustion with just caffeine, like something that's just going to make you feel more awake. But even if it does wake you up, that only fixes the symptom of the problem, which is the exhaustion, and like, yeah, you can do that every day for the rest of your life, but you're going to have to because you've never actually addressed what's causing the exhaustion. The problem is the insomnia, and so you need to figure out how to address the insomnia, not the exhaustion. Emotional eating is the exhaustion in this, and if we focus on just fixing the emotional eating, just stopping the fact that we eat emotionally, we're never going to get to the cause of why we're doing that. We're never going to get to the root of what's making us emotional and needing a coping thing in the first place. A coping thing, that's a professional term, so like, I think that's again maybe not a hot take, but like, maybe a little bit different of a framing, like a little bit more approachable of a framing for it.
Speaker 1:And here's the other, the second half of that. If we can overcome our internalized anti-fatness that makes us so critical of emotional eating, then we can actually see emotional eating as a helpful tool for self-awareness and reflection instead of seeing it as a harmful behavior that needs to be stopped. Reflection instead of seeing it as a harmful behavior that needs to be stopped. Like, because emotional eating can actually be like an early warning sign, right, like it can actually be something that serves a really useful purpose that maybe we'd actually be worse off without. Like maybe we'd actually have a harder time identifying our like that we have an unmet need If our emotional eating didn't pop up to tell us like hey, something's up.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's the hot take here. Like that, the emotional eating is a warning sign for like something else going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think that's the hot take, that like maybe emotional eating is a good thing, maybe it's like a functional, helpful mechanism that we have going on, instead of like red flag.
Speaker 2:Something's happening here.
Speaker 1:Right and that if we could, you know, bring that principle one work in here and and let go of the internalized anti-fatness that makes us feel like it's something that needs to be shut down. We could actually be grateful for it, maybe, okay. Principle eight respect your body, which is all about recognizing that our bodies deserve all the good things kindness, care, dignity, comfort, nourishment, movement, safety, pleasure, all of the things, no matter what, no matter what they look like, no matter what their ability level is, no matter any other identity or state, our bodies are deserving of all of these things. So I think the hot tip again I don't think this is really a hot take, necessarily, and it's certainly something we've talked about a million times before we cannot cultivate body respect just by focusing on our own body image. So I mean, don't get me wrong, we do have to do body image work. That's super important but we also have to cultivate a respect for all bodies and understand the ways that society teaches us to see bodies in a hierarchy where some bodies deserve more respect than others. And that means doing much more than just like mirror work, like we can't just stand in the mirror and, you know, affirmation our way into this Body respect on a societal level means doing things like advocating for spaces where all bodies feel seen and valued and honored.
Speaker 1:It means challenging the status quo and calling out biases with our friends, our family, maybe even strangers, depending on the context and our safety level, and stuff it just. It really involves, like actively working towards more inclusive and compassionate spaces, even when it's uncomfortable. Um, you know, are you in a waiting room where there's no chairs that would accommodate larger bodies? Tell somebody, you know. Are you in a fitness class that doesn't accommodate for larger bodies? Tell somebody, like, just you know, are you hanging out with your friends and everybody's making derogatory body comments? Say something. These are the things that we have to do as we cultivate body respect, because we can't. It doesn't matter how much we tell ourselves our bodies are okay, if we still live in a world where they're not. Um, and we can't walk around critiquing other people's bodies and then think that somehow we're going to feel okay about our own. That's never going to happen.
Speaker 1:Principle number nine and now I kind of want to preface these last two principles with, like, maybe my hottest intuitive eating take, which is that nutrition and exercise are not the end goals of intuitive eating, not even healthy relationships with nutrition and exercise. And if we treat intuitive eating like it's incomplete without accomplishing the nutrition and exercise parts, then it's basically another diet plan, even if it's not technically about weight loss. It's basically another diet plan, even if it's not technically about weight loss Like. So you do not have to do the movement and nutrition principles at all if you don't want to. Intuitive eating is really about recognizing your needs, acknowledging them as valid and making autonomous decisions, which means that choosing not to do the movement and nutritional principle, the movement and nutrition principles, is just as much a practice of intuitive eating as anything else. So, like the hot that's, that's probably my hottest intuitive eating take the umbrella hot. Take right the umbrella hot. Take for these last two principles.
Speaker 1:Having said that, principle nine is movement. Feel the difference, aka joyful movement. Can I throw in another hot take? The titles of these last two principles are the worst. They are Like just call them joyful movement and gentle nutrition. The titles of these last two principles are the worst, Like, just call them joyful movement and gentle nutrition.
Speaker 2:Just call it what it is.
Speaker 1:Why are they so flowery? It doesn't have to be like that. So joyful movement. This principle is all about learning that there's like a million reasons to move our bodies that have absolutely nothing to do with changing the way our bodies look, and doing the work to disconnect movement from diets and body change. This is where we start reevaluating what counts as movement. We discover how we enjoy, or can at least tolerate, moving our bodies. It's really just all about reshaping our relationship with movement. So the hot tip perhaps for this one is that most of us need to take a full break from intentional exercise in order to peel back the layers of our relationship to movement. I say hot tip.
Speaker 1:I also know we have said this a million times on the podcast, but this is a great example of what we said at the beginning about if you feel stuck in a principle, go back to principle one, because if you can't stop associating movement with weight, with food, with stuff like that, you might need to stop with intentional movement for a while. And if you're unwilling to do that, it's worth asking yourself why Like what diet culture narratives are telling you that you can't take a break for the sake of sorting out and healing your relationship to movement. And no, that doesn't mean you're not allowed to play with your kids or go for walks or garden or anything like that. You also maybe you can still do spontaneous movement like going for a group hike or a family bike ride or something like that. But we're talking about like no scheduled workouts for a while, and I know that can feel super uncomfortable and that's why you might need to ask yourself like why are you not willing to give yourself that grace here?
Speaker 1:The second thing is that it is okay if you never find movement joyful. On Instagram and she also writes the Fluffy Kitten Party blog wrote a great post a couple of years ago about how tolerable movement is often a more approachable goal, especially for folks with chronic illnesses that can benefit from movement but maybe also make movement really difficult. So there's that. But also maybe you just don't like movement at all and you never find a regular movement practice that you like. That's actually okay too. Like you don't have to exercise if you don't want to. You don't have to earn your worth, your respect, your nourishment or anything else through exercise or movement here's another, I guess, kind of self-serving hot take as a personal trainer.
Speaker 2:There are I don't want to say a lot, but I definitely have a handful of clients that do not like exercise and I know we have a we've have a full episode about words like accountability and things like that. But literally like they pay for personal training because they just need somebody to show up for, like they need to schedule an appointment, and I've gone back and forth like on my feelings towards that. But like at the end of the day I'm like okay, like they might show up, they might hate everything we do, but they came and they did it because that is what they have chosen to want to do for themselves and like and that's okay. Like that might not be okay for everybody, but for these individuals like that's that's what they want to do, and like and it's fine.
Speaker 1:Totally. And I also just like because you brought up the thing about the language, like I think the issue is not that like people do that. It's calling it accountability instead of routine, like what they need is routine, right, they're not accountable to you. Like you're not going to punish them if they don't show up.
Speaker 1:You're just there to help them keep a routine and that totally makes it is very hard, especially with, like, all the things that we all have going on all the time. It is really really hard to book in time for ourselves without some structure. And multiply that by a million if it's for something you don't actually want to do, but like you see the utility in doing, like it's something you want to do but don't enjoy doing, let's. I think that's the good thing. Um, so yeah, like that's a great way to navigate that, especially if you're in the like tolerable movement versus joyful movement camp. Yep, absolutely. Which brings us to principle 10 again. So, flower relief, so flowery, honor your health with gentle nutrition, which we can actually just call gentle nutrition.
Speaker 2:It's fine I'm a very big fan of calling things what they are just call it what it is it's so weird.
Speaker 1:Like we don't do that for any of the other principles, why does this one have to? Why did these last two have to be like that?
Speaker 2:I wonder if this because these have been kind of scrutinized, of like well, maybe movement isn't joyful and they've tried to, you know, reword that, but like, whatever, like potato, potato.
Speaker 1:I am positive that is exactly what it is and I just like cause it has that feeling of like this has been workshopped to death. Let's put it through a focus group everybody. Okay, gentle nutrition is all about learning to take the facts of the nutritional content of our food and measure that against our actual experiences in our bodies, against our preferences, against what we have access to, against what fits in our lives, so that we can make truly autonomous choices about food. Okay, I feel like maybe both of these are slightly hot takes. The first one is you probably know everything you need to know about nutrition already.
Speaker 1:If you've been dieting for years, you probably know more than you need to know, to the point where it might be helpful to unlearn some of it because you don't need it. It doesn't actually apply to you as an average person, because the average person does not need to be micromanaging their nutrition. You're probably getting a perfectly fine amount of protein. Fruits and veggies are great, and you already knew that Pizza for every meal probably isn't going to make you feel so hot. And once you've gotten to this principle and you've learned to listen to your body, you probably also already know all the unique things to your personal nutrition as well. Like maybe too much dairy doesn't make you feel great, maybe you need more fiber for your digestion, maybe carbs at dinner help you sleep better. The fact is that if you're not an elite athlete or someone who needs medical nutrition management, you probably don't need to do much more than that to practice gentle nutrition.
Speaker 1:The second thing is this principle has two parts and they are equally important. We often focus on the nutrition and forget about the gentleness need to focus so hard on nutrition, like if our kitchen is being remodeled and we only have access to a microwave for our dinners for a while. The stress of trying to make every meal balanced and to like maintain your regular eating habits is probably worse for you than a week of eating microwave dinners. I once I wish I could remember who I heard this from, but I once heard somebody say that they always see red flags when someone says they're passionate about nutrition and they were talking about mostly health and wellness professionals and influencers because it just always signals some serious healthism, wellness, diet, diet culture, like obsessions, and I feel the same way, like nothing sets off alarms for me like I'm passionate about nutrition.
Speaker 2:No, you are not you've just done a lot of diets and you've learned a lot, and so you feel like you need to tell other people about your diets and what you have learned.
Speaker 1:Right, you are passionate about telling people what to do and I also think that this is true for non-professionals, when we always make nutrition our top priority, because it just can't be, like there is just no way that nutrition is more important than our mental health, our relationships, our social experiences, like just all of that, like our stress levels, just all of that stuff. Like if nutrition is constantly your top priority, like that you cannot move down the priority list for any reason. That's a sign that we need to go and look at what narratives are keeping it at the top of our list. Because why, why is it at the top of your list, especially to the point of trying to navigate it under, like, impossible circumstances a kitchen remodel, travel, like things like that. Like, just if you can't let it go.
Speaker 1:There's some questions to answer. Right, it's all the principles. That's a lot of hot tips and hot takes, so many hot tips and hot takes and lukewarm takes and hot takes nuggeted inside of hot tips. Um, but I do really hope that this is helpful for folks who, again, just like, don't necessarily relate to intuitive eating as written, who might feel stuck with some of these principles, because I think these are aspects of actually applying the practice of intuitive eating that aren't very clear when you just read the book or do the workbook or something like that. There are things that I think really make a difference in terms of practical application that just aren't accessible if you're trying to just navigate through it by reading the book on your own.
Speaker 2:Right, no, that's good and I think I like that. This, I feel like, is kind of an abridged version of the individual intuitive eating episodes. I feel like they will be good counterparts to each other. So if somebody listens to this and they want more of a deep dive into one specific principle, they can kind of like go into that. So I kind of like that this exists now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, because you know, we like very briefly explained each of the principles here, but the truth is that the principles are so nuanced and like there's there's a lot more to them, and so, yeah, it's definitely worth actually listening to the full episodes for each of the principles as well.
Speaker 2:yeah, okay, what's satisfying for you right now?
Speaker 1:I am currently very satisfied by um I. I just recently went back and started rewatching all of Umbrella Academy because the final season just came out and I, every time I watch, every time I go to watch it, I forget how much I love the show and then, as soon as I start watching it, I like fall in love with it all over again. I don't know what it is about this show in particular that I'm always just kind of like, yeah, it's good, I like it, whatever, and I just forget how much I like truly love it until I actually start watching it again.
Speaker 2:I have not watched it.
Speaker 1:So the first season, so that I can watch like the whole series now that the final season's out, and it's been very, very enjoyable. Nice, yeah, how about you? What's satisfying for you right now?
Speaker 2:uh, tv is also satisfying for me. Right now there was a show it comes on discovery or discovery or Max, but there was only one season. It's called Love Off the Grid. Of course it's like a reality show and they only had the one season. So I was like man, this probably didn't get picked up. It didn't make it. Well, the new season just dropped, like last week, and it's so good. I love me a good reality like love slash dating show, but this one is it's a little different because one person lives off the grid and the show documents them trying to form a relationship Like it's already an established relationship, but the other person is coming, like, from the city to live off the grid with the person that, like, lives way out in the woods somewhere or way out in the desert somewhere, and it's just really, really good that sounds like such a bonkers premise, but it also sounds really interesting.
Speaker 1:I also like it's also interesting that it's like an already established relationship, so they're just changing the dynamic of it instead of just like starting a whole new relationship this time.
Speaker 2:That's interesting it is good and and I like it because, like each storyline is different, like it's got some different elements of relationships. I won't give any spoilers to the folks that might watch it. But it's not just like you're just regular, all like you know dating show beautiful people that you typically see on, like you know, the bachelor or love is blind or anything like that. There's some like there's there's some some differences in this show compared to the normal dating shows and it makes it really interesting because some of these other shows they've been done over and over and over again. It just gets kind of boring. So this this spice things up a little bit. On a love off the grid.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave us a rating or review on Apple podcast and Spotify, and you can also find us on Instagram. We are at satisfaction factor pod.
Speaker 1:That's it for us this week. We'll catch you next time.